Continuing a weight lifting program into later years saved my father's life.

Heres a little motivator for all you aging people who might be questioning the point of all your hard work at the gym.

On Sunday my 50 year old father took a bad dump in the surf ripping muscles all the way up his back, breaking two vertibra and the top thick rib. After working a day he decided to get it checked out by a doctor and the doc was completely certain that if my father wasn't in such good condition for his age that accident would have resulted in at best case quadaplegia, worst case death (or otherway around?). He's already gone and bought his personal trainer a bottle of wine.

So keep up the weight lifting guys, you may not be needing fit bodies to woe young girls but the benefits from keeping up a strength regime are very real.

My father is a posterboy(man?) for the long-term benefits of a healthy lifestyle. He never trained as hard as many of us, but he has been very consistent about exercising three or four times a week for most of his life. He turned 63 this year and looks at least ten years younger.

I'm inspired. I've recently been diagnosed with some herniated disks and the doc(s) want me to stop lifting. Screw that, I'll just try to be more sane around my back.

Heck my dad turned 70 this year and has been lifting weights and quit smoking, and he now looks at least 10 years younger and moves around pretty well for a coot. Just a few years of lifting and working out has seemingly erased most of a lifetime of couch-potato-ship and smoking. good stuff

Second, my conditioning coach went to a competition a few months ago and didn't fail any of his lifts but took second to a 75 year old that didn't miss any of his (anyone here familiar with powerlifting competition probably knows why - age is factored into score). That dude is well over a senior citizen and is a flat-out bad ass that probably has a good 30 to 40 years left.

Finally, my friend was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident in September (I made a thread asking about resources for amputee athletes on Bullshido); he was a competitive wrestler and power lifter and the doctors, when he was brought in, were certain he would die. He's alive, granted, his left arm was lost in the process and he's recovering at an insane rate. Why? According to every doctor that's seen him, it's because he was in excellent shape just prior to the accident...and he was wearing protective gear; but the recovery speaks for itself.

Nice to see your other positive stories guys, i think too many people lead an incredibly fit life to their mid 20s then drop all exercise from there on, hopefully i won't be one of them.

I'd buy you a beer for him bearf*cker but the man only drinks his terrible tasting homebrews and wine :). I think he skips some of the steps because it comes out tasting worse than a pub which hasnt cleaned it's pipes in years.